Tag Archives: Jiangsu Province

After spending a few hours at Lingering Garden, the kids and I called a taxi and headed to Master of the Net Garden. Known as Wangshi Yuan in Chinese, this garden dates back to 1140. It was completely remodeled in 1770 and for many people, and most tourist books we have read, they claim it to be one of the finest of all Suzhou’s gardens.

Although small, it succeeds, with great subtly, in introducing every element consider crucial to the classical garden. It included a little lake in the center, discreet connecting corridors and pavilions with neatly decorated courtyards with flowers and rocks. This garden was Briana’s favorite by far. She just loved it.

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all.

Here’s another of the main garden area of Master of the Net Garden…

We just loved this map of the garden…

Nathan playing in the rocks…

Kids were in a goofy mood by the time we got to this park. Lots of funny faces…

(Photo by Briana)

Just on the other side of the pond was this pretty area…

Nathan in the moon gate…

Nathan

Zachary and Briana climbing the rocks… my kids are going to have some adjusting to do when we come back.

This was one of many doors that look like nothing but lead into beautifully gardened areas…

Nathan… Yep, the kids are going to have to learn how to follow rules again.

In this country rules are guidelines and you don’t get yelled at when you do what you want…

Whereas, in the US we get told to not do this and that all the time… Briana and Nathan

Nathan, Briana and Zachary

The boys in their hats drew so much attention. Locals love cowboys…

Nathan, Zachary and Briana

Another little area with lovely flowers…

How can you not love this photo? My favorite!!!

Love these moon gates…

Most people get tired of seeing the gardens and temples and say they all blend. We completely disagree

A nice man offered to take our photo…

See what I mean? Goofy kids…

A bit of Chin-glish…

I don’t know why but I just adored this little dark room. Took about 15 handheld attempts to get a steady one since it was so dark.

Master of the Net Garden

Briana

Briana

Briana

Nathan

Nathan

Nathan

Zachary

Zachary

We thought this sign was funny being placed right next to the pond…

Master of the Net Garden

We are pretty sad to leave China, even though we can’t wait to go home…

Master of the Net Garden

The cowboys heading back to the ranch after an awesome day at the gardens in Suzhou!

What a day to wake up to! Sunny, little haze, low humidity and warm… a perfect day to go visit some gardens. There are quite a few gardens here in Suzhou. So many, I doubt we will get through all of them by the time we head home in two weeks. We did know we needed to for sure visit the Liu Lingering ‘Liu Yuan’ and Master of the Nets gardens. Both are claimed to be the best in gardens.

Remember back when we went to Humble Administrator’s Garden in September last year, I told you I would let you know if Humble was all it was touted at being. Well, Humble shies in comparison to the two we visited today. Easily… Master of the Net is perfection in a tiny package and Lingering was simply gorgeous–my favorite personal favorite. Since we have two major trips planned before leaving, Mike did not have the time to take off to spend with us visiting the gardens, so you will see mainly the kids. As usual, the gardens are best viewed during the week when attendance is low…

Lingering offered more than just garden views. We enjoyed a lady playing the Sheng, two people playing instruments and storytelling and a tiny opera performance. It was so darn neat! Loved every minute at this garden. Sheng is the oldest reed instrument in China. It’s the earliest music instrument using free reed in the world. This gal performed in one of the pavilions…

Suzhou Storytelling and Ballad Singing is sort of a folk art originated in Suzhou in ancient times. Performed by two people, sometimes telling and sometimes signing. Accompanying musical instruments are Pi-pa and the Chinese Tricord…

In China, there are many kinds of opera, including Beijing Opera; all are nurtured from Kunqu Opera. Kunqu Opera, “the Ancestor of Chinese Traditional Operas”, is one of the oldest operas still existing in Modern China today. It originated over 600 years ago…

Fun videos, huh? So different than what we see in the US. Here are the photos from Lingering Garden…

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all.

Briana, Nathan and Zachary at Liu Lingering Garden in Suzhou

Zachary, Nathan and Briana

Briana just saw our biggest Koi yet!

This guy was two feet long and more than eight inches wide in the belly area…

Liu Lingering Garden

Liu Lingering Garden

Briana

Liu Lingering Garden

Liu Lingering Garden

Briana, Zachary and Nathan with his ever handy map of the garden

There were these 15ft high Hydrangea Trees with bloom bundles more than a foot in diameter. I fell in love!

I have quite a few of photos of these flowers. I just loved them.

Hydrangea Tree Blossoms

Hydrangea Tree Blossoms

Zachary

A Cowboy in an Asian garden!

Liu Lingering Garden

Nathan

Nathan, Zachary and Briana

Nathan, Zachary and Briana

Nathan crawling through the rocks…

Briana

Briana, Zachary and Nathan – the boys and their hats attracted a lot of attention

Artists by the water painting…

Zachary

Briana, Nathan and Zachary

Oh my! They are so funny! Especially Zachary…

More Hydrangea Blossoms

Pretty even in Black and White…

I have to plant some of these trees…

The Tree

Hydrangeas

Nathan, Briana and Zachary

This was by far the most scenic location. It was so packed with people. I could barely get these shots without people.

Liu Lingering Garden

Nathan, Briana and Zachary at Liu Lingering Garden

Nathan, Briana and Zachary at Liu Lingering Garden

Liu Lingering Garden

Liu Lingering Garden

This pretty lady was playing the reed instrument called Sheng

Sheng…

Look what happens when you have a camera and your kids are all in using the facilities…

As most of you know, Mike received his license last year and has been driving around town for months now. All the driving has developed a large amount of courage in his ability to drive beyond Suzhou. Already having drove to a nearby city of Changshu, Mike was ready to travel farther.

I had found an article in an Expat magazine about a Buddhist-styled theme park north in Wuxi. Since it touts as having one of the tallest Sakyamunis in the world, we just had to go. Located in the Maji Mountain area, the park was nicely thoughtout with the tallest mountain behind the Grand Buddha, hills on the side with the view of Lake Tai (where the gardens in Suzhou attained their rocks-you have seen them in past garden posts). The Buddha was erected near the 1000 year old temple of Xiangfu, where many come during the Spring Festival to hear its bell rings for luck in the following year. The Buddha (Da Fo) is made of tin and copper and weighs over 700 tons. Standing over 100 feet taller than our own Statue of Liberty, this Buddha leaves an impression. On its left hand is the symbol called “Shi Wu Wei” with its intent to reduce suffering in the world, the right hand has the “Yu Yuan” symbol for happiness and the chest has the ancient symbol of solemnity and virtue.

Interestingly, this place was built by Japanese investors in 1997. In the recent years, the overdone, elaborate palace was built. We were in shock as we cruised through it. It was way beyond anything enlightened, i.e. humble, mild and meek. It was over-the-top; beautiful & tacky. We spent most of the day here. Mike only took one wrong turn, that paid off for us… we found all the strawberry farmers. They were super sweet and juicy. We ate one large bowl on the way there and purchased three more on the way home. Yummy!

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all.

Mike behind the wheel…

Heading to the ticket booth…

Waterfall at the entry… reminded us of the one at Panmen Scenic Area in Suzhou.

Nathan, Briana and Zachary

Picture time with locals…

A few people in line for their photo…

Nope, these are not fireworks. They are incense cakes. Zachary was trying to figure out how to get one home.

The Lingshan Da Fo

Pretty lady, Briana…

There were all kinds of turtles in the water behind Briana.

Lingshan

Lingshan Da Fo

Azaleas

Zachary, Briana and Nathan – it was a warm day in the 70s with light humidity

Mike

The Baby Buddha Lotus Flower Fountain in the foreground…

Baby Buddha Fountain

Baby Buddha Fountain

Fountain has a music and water synchronicity that plays several times a day

Baby Buddha

Zachary, Nathan and Briana with the Buddhas

Baby Buddha

Lingshan

These things were huge…

Statues around the fountain…

Fountain

Here’s the Palace filled with all the plush, golden art on Buddhism…

Lingshan

This area was closed, but we found an open door on the side so we did the Chinese thing and just proceeded to enter…

Kids

Briana and her Daddy

the Pagoda

Zachary sitting at the base of the Pagoda

Guardian on the base of the Pagoda

Another guardian…

and another…

another…

A real tough looking guardian…

another…

This guardian looked cool… he was the last one.

The Big Buddha with the Pagoda

The Big Buddha with the Pagoda

In a side building beside the Pagoda, we found the God of Wealth. The room was lush..

Here was what is supposed to be the entry into the Pagoda area…

We found the park a bit tough to understand. The only English words anywhere was TOILET and we didn’t need that since you can smell them a mile away.

Lingshan

Happy Buddha had too many people around him at this time, so we came back to him later.

This gives you perspective on the size of the hand. Yes, we walked around it too.

Remember the split pants, here’s the real McCoy… what a treasure, huh?

Lingshan

Local flowers…

Lingshan Buddha (Da Fo) – 217 steps

Briana and Nathan

This Ginkgo Tree was majestic…

the Ginkgo Tree

A view looking down from the Buddha at the Ginkgo Tree

The only old building we found in the park

There was lots of white pigeons all over the park…

Zachary

Lingshan Da Fo

Lingshan Da Fo

Walking up the steps to the base of the Da Fo

A view of the valley below…

Lingshan Da Fo

Nathan

Zachary

Briana

Mike

A view from the highest point we could get too. We did not make it to the top of the lotus flower.

This area in the base building of the Buddha

Another view down the valley…

Coming back down, we found monks chanting in one of the halls. Their attire was very rich; nothing like we have ever seen before on monks…

Zachary

Briana

Back to Happy Buddha. The kiddos on Buddha were doing all kinds of not so appropriate behavior… odd.

Happy Buddha

Always appreciate Guan Lin… located in a very peaceful area.

Flower

My favorite color is purple…

The Palace…

Before entry, we had to cover our shoes. Here’s the ceiling at the entry of the main hall.

It felt like a grand Catholic Church…

The ceiling in the center of the hall… it changed colors every 15 to 20 seconds…

The hall with Buddha in colored glass…

Looking down the hall back to the entry…

Does this really look like anything Buddhist to you?

Buddha

Briana with her Zodiac Statue, Tiger

Nathan and Zachary with their Zodiac Statue, Rabbit

Mike with her Zodiac Statue, Horse

Me with my Zodiac Statue, Monkey

This little man-made lake was in front of the palace…

The kids…

Briana

Yellow Iris

Yellow Iris

Another purple iris…

HOWDY!

Lingshan

Nathan eating his favorite food in China – Tofu. This was fried tofu in broth. (Photo by Mike)

My goal for Chinese New Year was to find a place where dragon and lion dancing was being presented. According to the local Expat magazine, Tiger Hill was one of the places in Suzhou on New Year’s Day this was to happen. So we packed up the company car and Mike drove us to Tiger Hill for the festives. Unfortunately, there were no dancing. All we found was massive photo happy people. As you will see in the photos, Mike and Briana were used for numerous photo ops. There were so many that day, I think I deleted over 20 photos I took of them. I did leave a few in the pictures below. They did get a bit out of hand and really upset Briana because they were starting to use her as an object, no longer being seen as a person. She was mentally and physically drained from this day out. I finally had to put on my protective mommy look and hold her close so no one would come and grab at her any longer. It worked, thank goodness.

Tiger Hill is an area you can see from a lot of Suzhou. It is a popular destination for locals and tourists due to its age and the mystery surrounding the Sword Pool. According to Historical Records, King Helu was buried under the Sword Pool, and upon his burial is over 3000 swords. The legend goes that three days after his burial a white tiger appeared squatting the hill, thus the name Tiger Hill. The site has not been excavated because above the pool and potential burial is the Leaning Yunyan Pagoda. It is seven stories height with a lean and predates the the Tower of Pisa. If excavation were to take place, the pagoda would tumble. As we could see, it is hanging on by a thread anyway. Here is a little video of a few things we did for the day…

And the following are the photos.

…Click on any image to enlarge. Or better yet… click on the first photo and scroll through them all

We started our day off with Breakfast at a local hotel. A nice man took the photo of us by the fortune tree.

On our way out, Zachary found one of his many dream cars. Don’t some of these Chinese have the money?

The pathway leading to the entrance of Tiger Hill

The kids at the entrance. This was super cold day out. We were all bundled up and red-nosed.

Mike and the kids…

Tiger Hill is surrounded by canals. These boats are available for rides around it.

Briana and Nathan found their first horse in China… grouchy old coot too!

The kids…

The kids and I coming up the pathway. (Photo By Mike)

Nathan

Briana and Mike…

Mike posing at the Third Spring…

As I was taking Mike’s Photo, they jumped in…

And then, these people jumped in for a shot with Mike…

Then this gal, grabbed Zachary and Briana behind me for a photo…

Kids at the Sword Pool

The Sword Pool

Tiger Hill

The kids with the Leaning Yunyan Pagoda in the background…

The kids with the Leaning Yunyan Pagoda in the background…

Leanign Yunyan Pagoda

A freezing Zachary, Nathan and Briana

I was taking this photo when…

All of these people showed up.

And they stayed around awhile.

Finally, got them to leave and we went back to family photos…

And I jumped in this time. (Photo by Mike)

Leaning Yunyan Pagoda (Photo by Mike)

Humid? Love Chin-glish…

Photo of lots of others taking photos…

Zachary had on his vest, poly coat, heavy winter coat and still put my down coat over the top and he was still freezing.

Zachary and Mike

Nathan and Briana with the God of Wealth

Zachary

Just a photo of all the people at Tiger Hill

Briana and Mike by the Sword Pool.

Zachary and Nathan..

Even in a quiet area, they snagged her for 10 minutes worth of pictures. She was done after this one.

Briana and Mike by a quiet pond near the Bonsai Garden

Pony!

Nathan

Zachary holding Nathan…

You saw this boat in the video…

(Photo by Mike)

(Photo by Mike)

(Photo by Mike)

(Photo by Mike)

(Photo by Mike)

Chinese New Year happens on their Spring Festival Time. All the plum trees bloom in the cold temps this time of the year.